Newsletter

Party helps those in need

Homeless students benefit this year

PETER.WILLOTT@STAUGUSTINE.COM Patty Steder, owner of the House Of Sea & Sun Bed & Breakfast in St. Augustine Beach, and Chris Stone, homeless liaison for the St. Johns County School Board, look through a collection of toys and musical instruments that Steder is giving to the schools for their homeless students. Steder held a Christmas party at her bed and breakfast where guests brought gifts to be given to the county's homeless students.

The price of admission to Patty Steder’s annual Christmas party is a gift. But these gifts are going to people the givers will probably never meet.

“I always give an annual Christmas party for friends and family and guests at the house,” said Steder who owns the House of Sea & Sun Bed and Breakfast in St. Augustine Beach.

“People were always saying, ‘What do you want me to bring?’ We all have so much nobody needs a bunch more stuff,” Steder said, explaining why she began asking her guests to bring an unwrapped toy that could be given to a child. And each year she’s given the gifts to those in need.

Recipients have varied.

For a couple of years the fire department came to pick up the toys and “it became a parade.”

Two years ago, a couple gave a couple of thousand dollars worth of musical instruments that went to students at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. They decided on the gift after hearing a guest at the B&B with a child at the school tell about how popular musical instruments were.

“One of the parents said even if the child was deaf and can’t hear, they can feel them, and for the ones who can hear, they learn to play by hearing,” Steder said.

This year for some reason a lot of people brought gift cards, she said, and Steder decided while that might not be what a child wanted it was great for teenagers. In addition, toys and musical instruments are part of this year’s gift-giving results.

“We thought this year it would be good to give to the schools and let them distribute (the gifts) to homeless kids,” she said.

“I don’t think everybody ever realized there were so many homeless children,” she said, noting she helps out at Dining with Dignity once a month. There, you see homeless adults but rarely any children, she said.

According to the St. Johns County School District, about one percent of the about 33,600 students in the system are homeless. In November the number was at about 450 and expected by the end of the school year to pass last year’s total of 684.

Homeless students are in every school in the county and may live with or without their parents in emergency shelters, hotels or motels, according to district officials. The majority — about 70 percent — are sharing housing because of the loss of their former residence. About two dozen are listed as living in cars, parks, etc. The district has a special family services program to work with the students, parents and guardians.

“This year we wanted to be sure the homeless kids got something for their Christmas,” said Steder, who has held the party for 10 years and owned the B&B for 17 years.

The tradition of giving is a family one.

Several years back her children decided to stop giving each other “useless presents” and began taking on a homeless family to help during the holidays. “They give (the family) the money so they can do something for the kids.”